Bicycle chain wax PROS & CONS

What are the pros and cons of using wax to lubricate your bicycle's chain.
CONTENTS:
00:00 Introduction
02:42 Experiment
06:28 Chain wear extremes
09:02 100% clean & lubricated!
12:07 Wax VS Oil
16:13 Winter and wax
18:43 Molten wax
21:36 Practicality
26:25 Modern chain construction
31:00 Conclusion?
32:46 How to prepare the chain for wax?
Useful LINKS:
Quick link reusability discussed:
bike.bikegremlin.com/44/best-...
Bicycle chain design (old bushings vs modern no-bushing chains):
bike.bikegremlin.com/733/chan...
How exactly does a bicycle chain wear (elongate):
bike.bikegremlin.com/3306/bic...
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List of all the BikeGremlin videos, sorted by categories:
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#bikegremlin #mostlyharmless

[@BikeGremlinUS]

BikeGremlin forum topic related to this video:
www.bikegremlin.net/threads/chain-wax-yay-or-ney.214/
Relja

[@thankmelater1254]

I haven't tried any of the cleaning systems and have used only the water repellent anti-corrosion sprays such as ACF-50 and I'm now using Chain Saver, and I wipe the chain with paper towels every hundred km or after the chain gets wet and I put a house fan to dry the bike after wiping.
It's got 9 gears but I only use the middle range of 5.
The chain is lasting a long time it must be near 10,000 km now.

[@Saulius.G]

Do not use diesel for degreasing, use petrol(gasoline) instead(just be careful not to burn something). Diesel by itself is somewhat greasy. I always use petrol from my outboard motor canister to degrease things. I started restoration of my old MTB few weeks ago and degreased new chain in petrol, later in 99% IPA(some sources say you first need to do it with IPA). Now chain looks very clean with no oil on it. I do think its enough to clean it with petrol only and skip IPA part, just wash it in fresh petrol 2nd time. I used less than 1 liter to clean two new chains. It will be first time I am using wax. The biggest pro of wax for me is that any surface touched the chain will not get dirty that is hard to clean. Thanks for creating good and interesting content with very good explanations. Keep going.

[@BikeGremlinUS]

Hi,
Thank you for the feedback - I appreciate it.
- I would suggest discussing on BikeGremlin forum since follow-up replies seem to get lost on UA-cam (at least for me). The forum address (bikegremlin.net):
www.bikegremlin.net/
Regarding petrol - it is very toxic and highly flammable.
I should make a video about how dangerous petrol can be (it can be quite tricky in some ways, even in ventilated areas). Putting it on my to-do list.
Petrol is AWESOME for cleaning and degreasing. Nothing beats it at that. It's just the how it behaves (and how flammable it is) that makes me not use it, and warn against using it (more than just not recommending it).
Of course, during the 90s (wars & sanctions - the fun times :) ), all I had was petrol and I worked a lot with it, didn't get killed or set anything on fire myself, but I've seen how bad it can be and would avoid it if at all possible.
In my experience over the past two decades, diesel (or odourless mineral spirits) does a decent job of dissolving grease and gunk buildup, while being a lot safer to work with. Yes, that does require you to use alcohol or other "cleaner" degreaser to make stuff 100% free of any oil/grease.
Relja

[@dawn_rider]

There are actually several well tested methods ...
1) Solvent - minimum of 3 x 250ml baths of white spirit / mineral turpentine followed by two immersive baths of Methylated spirits. Acetone or Isopropanol are good alternatives to the Methylated spirits.
2) Ceramic speed UFO Drivetrain cleaner
3) Silca Chain stripper
4) Silca StripChips but only if you are using a wax pot that can reach a stable 125 deg C

[@pentiuman]

Cheaper to use bacon grease. BUT, it makes you hungry as you ride, and raises your cholesterol.